Moldova's pro-Russian parties unite to press for September election win

CHISINAU (Reuters) -Four pro-Russian parties in Moldova said on Tuesday they would form a bloc in order to press for victory in September's parliamentary election and oust the current government committed to seeking European Union membership by 2030.

The vote, scheduled for September 28, could see President Maia Sandu's Party of Action and Solidarity unable to keep a majority in the assembly in the ex-Soviet state lying between Ukraine and Romania.

The bloc brings together the Party of Socialists, headed by former president Igor Dodon, the Heart of Moldova and Future of Moldova parties, as well as the Communist Party.

"We are in favour of re-establishing strategic ties with Russia. We want peace, not war ... Our bloc will put an end to foreign interests and NATO," Dodon told a press conference as he introduced the new union.

Sandu, who has denounced Russia's invasion of Ukraine and accuses the Kremlin of trying to destabilise Moldova, won re-election last year by a razor-thin margin over a Socialist challenger. And a referendum asking voters to back the drive for EU membership only just cleared a 50% majority.

Parliament Chairman Igor Grosu, who also leads Sandu's Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), dismissed the left-wing bloc as a Kremlin invention.

"Tired politicians who have swapped places in power and kept Moldova in poverty and a grey zone have been hauled out of mothballs at the Kremlin's behest," Grosu wrote on social media.

"What unites all these worn-out politicians? The same sack of money and the same boss behind it. We must keep Moldova on the same path into the European Union."

On July 19, Moldova's Central Election Commission refused to register the pro-Russian Victory bloc, formed in 2024 and backed by pro-Kremlin fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor, for the vote on grounds of violating electoral financing laws.

Moldovan officials have said that Shor has played a leading role in Russian-backed interference aimed at derailing Moldova's EU course. Shor denied the allegations and dismissed the decision as absurd.

A poll published last week credited Sandu's PAS with 27.4% of voting intentions ahead of the election, compared to 10.4% for the opposition Socialists and 6.2% for the Victory bloc.

(Reporting by Alexander Tanas; Writing by Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Ron Popeski, Alexandra Hudson and Daniel Wallis)